So then I inevitably hit a snag, obviously, the first problem was getting the shooting authorisation, meaning that we needed to have- So I didn't have the professional card. So. Everything I had done in Indochina, as a photographer, I couldn't use it, so we needed to ask for a dispensation.
Yes, at the CNC.
At the CNC. Eventually since we were setting up everything, we waited until August to ask for the dispensation, that way there was hardly anyone at the commission, so it was easier to charm people. So we left for Afghanistan to make this film. And eventually I mean we left, not all of us because we left in two shifts. Because at the time we wanted to collect a gyroscopic stand, we needed to make a stop, it didn't exist at the time, there was either the Coutant stand, or the wooden Arri stands, but the gyro stands practically didn't exist. Nowadays we can find them more easily, at the time- So there was one in Switzerland, that the guys were nice enough to rent to us, which was a huge thing, it was a huge thing like that, which was extremely heavy, that we hardly used because of its weight because lugging it around was a dreadful process. Well we still took it. So we left, and we left on the day Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal. So well it didn't really bother us because nationalising the Suez Canal, well- But in the end what bothered us was when the English and the French decided to invade. So we were filming over there and eventually the Afghan government called to tell us- Listen, people are protesting that we are- helping attackers, so you will need to leave and that was a real problem because the film was far from being finished, far from it. And because we hadn't filmed it in order because we had gone to film in the North of the country for aesthetic reasons etc., where we wanted to start the film.

French cinematographer, Raoul Coutard (1924-2016) was twice nominated for the César Award for best cinematography which he won in 1978 for 'Le Crabe-tambour'. He made over 75 films and documentaries, including 'À Bout de Souffle', Le Mépris' and 'Band à Part'. He was the most acclaimed French cinematographer of his generation and one of the key figures of the New Wave.

Benard Cohn is a French filmmaker and writer, who has directed five films as well as numerous documentaries and television series. As an assistant director, he worked with many important filmmakers, including Luis Buñuel, François Jacob, Otto Preminger and Woody Allen. He was a founding member of the Ciné-Qua-Non cinema club and has acted as editor and translator for various publications on the world of cinema.